Eight million followers on TikTok won’t turn the keys to New York City’s most coveted co-ops.
Just ask Livvy Dunne, the 22-year-old influencer and former gymnast who practically got the door slammed in her face when she tried to buy a three-bedroom Upper West Side apartment that once belonged to Babe Ruth.
“I was going to buy it, I was going to pay with cash. I wanted this apartment bad. The realtor was so confident,” Dunne told her followers on TikTok Tuesday.
The SI Swimsuit cover girl, who is dating Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, said she was “literally supposed to get the keys” after putting in an all-cash offer on the $1.6 million pad and had already hired a decorator.
Instead, Dunne revealed “The people in the building voted to not have me live there … they denied me.”
Real-estate brokers told The Post that NYC co-ops are leery of influencers with thousands of followers — even those with millions of dollars to burn — because of paparazzi, lurking fans and other unwanted buzz.
“Influencers today carry a level of visibility once reserved for traditional celebrities, and with that can come added attention, disruption or even safety concerns. Boards … are often wary of anything that might attract crowds and cameras or compromise the peace,” said real-estate specialist Travis Wilburn, founder of The100 Collection.
“It’s not necessarily personal — it’s about protecting the collective environment.”
And then there’s the issue of staid co-op boards not necessarily understanding the influencer revenue stream.
“There’s this opening of new wealth that, as an influencer, is difficult to explain to a traditional co-op board,” Jade Skener, a commercial real estate agent and star of Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” told The Post.
“It’s like ‘OK, you have all this money — but how do I know you know how to manage it when you haven’t worked a traditional job?’” said Skener, 29, who has more than 100,000 followers herself. “They need proof that you understand how to do this.”
Skener said she’s had co-op deals go south because influencers tend to have 1099 tax forms rather than W-2s that show a steady and more secure income. Younger influencers buying a first apartment with new money and little credit history also have a Sisyphean hill to climb.
And it’s not just a wannabe buyer’s financials or letters or recommendation that co-op board members are studying.
“The co-op is reviewing the applicants financials and the risk of the default and the propensity to be a good neighbor,” Peter Riolo, a Manhattan-based real estate broker with Riolo Properties, told The Post.
In other words, someone is probably scrolling through an applicant’s social media to look out for any signs of partying, excessive spending or over-the-top notoriety.
“If the messaging they’re putting out in their influencer life is portraying them as being a bad neighbor, that’s a cause of concern,” Riolo said.
“Maybe they didn’t want a public figure living there,” Dunne told her TikTok followers Tuesday.
In 2022, former Yankee Alex Rodriguez almost lost out on a $9.9 million co-op on Central Park West.
“He almost didn’t get accepted and begged the board to accept him,” one insider revealed to The Post at the time.
According to a second source, it was a “typical white-glove Central Park West co-op. They don’t want anyone with celebrity status living here. That is not what they are going for.”
That attitude is why, Riolo said, he typically advises his famous buyers — whether influencers, actors, musicians or athletes — to opt for condos, as they require no board approval.
“It’s why celebrity clients buy condos — for anonymity,” he explained. “Many will choose not to go through the co-op process because of how invasive it is and [instead] buy a condo through an LLC. Even though they have to disclose who they are, there’s no approval process where the board has the right to review and reject without giving a cause.”
The streets of Manhattan are lined with the egos of A-listers barred from posh properties.
Billionaire and ousted WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was rejected by the co-op boards of a bevy of prestigious buildings while searching for a prized $50 million-plus apartment on Fifth Avenue in 2019, Page Six reported.
Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas were said to have been rejected from buying a ground-floor unit in the Upper West Side’s legendary Dakota building back in 2011 — the same building that also reportedly said no to Cher, Billy Joel and director Judd Apatow.
Rumor has it Madonna was snubbed by both the Dakota and the San Remo on the UWS (according to lore, Diane Keaton was the only member of the latter’s board to vote Yes for the Material Girl).
And a story has circulated for decades about Mariah Carey being told she couldn’t buy Barbra Streisand’s apartment at the white-glove Ardsley after the “Vision of Love” singer showed up for her board interview with a phalanx of bodyguards.
It’s all enough to make a young influencer like Dunne throw in the towel.
“Long story short, don’t try to live in a co-op,” she lamented on TikTok. “You might get denied and you won’t get Babe Ruth’s apartment.”
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